Posted on 05/27/2003 9:21:26 AM PDT by kattracks
Oh dear, Mr. Bush is such a drag - he has all of Washington's social set in a tizzy because he doesn't give lavish dinner parties where the oh so smart liberal set can prance around and tell each other how important and glamorous they are and how fitting it is that they should have been asked to White House social functions.
They shouldn't have been surprised. According to the LA Times, prior to leaving for Washington and the presidency, plain-spoken George Bush told friends "I hate parties."
The failure of the Bushes, who like to go to bed early and get up with the sunrise, has upset the rhythm in a city where one's importance and clout are measured by the number of glamorous White House parties they are asked to attend.
To their dismay, the president refuses to follow the example of his predecessors, giving big social affairs, and being witty and glamorous. Social Washington was much happier when Clinton was out clowning around and not worrying about such boring topics as national security.
Instead of being invited to official dinners at the White House, the would-be elite must content themselves with being asked to stand in the Rose Garden while the president makes a pitch for one of his programs, or greet him when he lands on the White House lawn in his helicopter, the Times notes.
For people whose rank among the socially elect is rated by their ability to mingle with the powerful, such occasions are a serious come-down from the good old days when the Reagans gave lavish receptions where one could rub shoulders with Hollywood celebrities and other people with serious social cachet.
George Bush's idea of entertaining is a get together with friends at his rustic retreat at Camp David or his ranch in Crawford Texas where he invites the world's leaders who his predecessors would have feted at formal White House dinners attended by Washington's self-appointed elite.
According to the Times, in the 2 1/2 years he's been president, Bush has been to Crawford nearly two dozen times, and he has visited Camp David about 60 times. He has already outpaced President Reagan's record of visits to his beloved Rancho del Cielo in Santa Barbara.
To the utter dismay of the Georgetown set, the Times says foreign leaders covet invitations to the down-home atmosphere of the 1,600-acre ranch in West Texas, preferring it to stuffy White House social affairs.
Says the Times: "The Georgetown set has noticed," and some are calling Bush ...gasp ... "a party pooper." Deprived of the cherished status symbol of either being asked to the White House, or having invitations to the first couple accepted, they delighted in current hostess-with-the-mostest Sally Quinn's catty piece last fall in W, a magazine geared to the fashion world.
"Since there's no social life at the White House, and no social life in the city, Washington as we know it is over," moaned Quinn, liberal wife of former Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee. "Washington's social scene has come to a screeching halt."
Socialites such as Quinn look back fondly on the days when other presidents satisfied their intense longings to be part of official Washington's glamour scene.
- President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, set the stage for his presidency by giving a pre- inaugural posh dinner for 40 of the city's leading power brokers at an exclusive local club. "The president and first lady confer a certain glamour, and the Reagans are the best example," Roxanne Roberts, a Style section reporter for the Washington Post told the Times. "It's our equivalent of a royal court. When that is stripped, a certain charisma is gone."
Too bad we won the Revolutionary War. If we'd lost we'd now have a real royal court.
- In the Kennedy era, the Times recalls, "kings and poets mingled in resplendent elegance."
"What Jackie Kennedy did years ago is very different than what happens today," Ann Stock, vice president at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts told the Times. "Now, socializing is done around issues. It's message-driven, based on what's going on in the world."
- The Clintons, went all out, moving state dinners out of the State Dining Room which can accommodate a mere 130 people, to a tent on the White House lawn, which can seat 650, providing a circus atmosphere appropriate to Mr. Clinton's flashy Hot Springs, Arkansas tastes.
Washington's social set mourns the days when Clinton's showy 10-car motorcades tore down the streets of Georgetown on their way to some trendy restaurant or soiree.
"After a president like Clinton, who thrived on meeting people and going out to different things, the comparison is a shock for everyone," Nancy Bagley, editor of Washington Life, a magazine that chronicles the city's parties told the Times. "Washington is a social town."
Poor dears!
One can only imagine the promiscuous sex, anonymous sex and coke-sniffing that really went on at Clintonista White House parties........
It's no wonder the Libs miss the bad old days.
I don't know how it relates to the topic at hand, but I do like the line.
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